Bucyrus 14-year-old faces 14th surgery

Boy survived being born with cancer, but needs help

1:09 AM,
Jul. 11, 2014

Joey Shaffer

Written by

Kimberly Gasuras
Telegraph-Forum

Joey Shaffer is embarking on his 14th surgery. That equals one surgery for every year he has been on this earth.

The Colonel Crawford High School freshman was born with cancer, and now he faces the removal of his spleen and biopsy of his liver, repercussions from his earlier surgeries to rid his body of the tumor discovered when he was 2 weeks old.

"When Joey was circumcised, he almost bled to death, and it took longer to heal than normal," said Christina Kiser, Shaffer's mom. "He had an enlargement in his abdominal area, so tests were run, including an ultrasound, and he was diagnosed at 2 weeks old ...